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When Candida Wilton arrives alone in London, divorced and rejected and without much money, she is filled with a strange sense of excitement. What can happen, at her age, to change her fortunes? How will she adjust to this shabby, violent, yet curiously attractive city? When Candida starts writing her diary, she expects that she will fill it with the small events with which she pads out her empty life, but she has always had a secret belief that despite all she is a lucky person. And she is, in a sense, right, for when an unexpected windfall brings her sudden riches, her horizons broaden: she will start, she thinks, with a trip abroad ...

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Synopsis

When Candida Wilton arrives alone in London, divorced and rejected and without much money, she is filled with a strange sense of excitement. What can happen, at her age, to change her fortunes? How will she adjust to this shabby, violent, yet curiously attractive city? When Candida starts writing her diary, she expects that she will fill it with the small events with which she pads out her empty life, but she has always had a secret belief that despite all she is a lucky person. And she is, in a sense, right, for when an unexpected windfall brings her sudden riches, her horizons broaden: she will start, she thinks, with a trip abroad...

About the Author

Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and educated at Cambridge. She was awarded a CBE in 1980. Her many novels include THE RADIANT WAY (1987), A NATURAL CURIOSITY (1989) and THE GATES OF IVORY (1991), and THE PEPPERED MOTH (2000) all of which are published by Penguin. Among her non-fiction works are The OXFORD COMPANION TO ENGLISH LITERATURE (1985, 2000, edited). Margaret Drabble is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London W10.

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Unusual narrative voice switches perspective and interjections further shift the viewpoint. Unsympathetic main character interacts with a wide range of interesting female characters while the male characters take a back seat. Yearning, whimsical, unresolved, sad.

Margaret Drabble - from her first book - charted the progress of the English family life in the welfare state. Her keen eye for detail makes readers nostalgic for years less influenced by television. Her protagonists were energetic, larky intelligent women. Candida Wilton - the diarist of "Seven Sisters" is the older version of those amazing characters and so, a bit slower. When the book opens, Candida has been living alone for a couple of years since being supplanted by a younger woman. Her headmaster ex-husband and her daughters having reduced her to invisible wife-work - they don't appear to notice she has gone. By now, she has come to terms with solitude, managing a small budget and coping. It sounds depressing but domesticated wives are watchers, and slowly her wry, crafty humour emerges into the diary. The spirited young woman she must have been, made her choose a flat in a mixed area of West London - very unlike the Georgian house in Sussex she left behind. Candida's life started to change when the building where she took evening classes was redeveloped into a health club, and she was encouraged to join. The flattening of her personality from a long boring marriage, begins to open out - she suggests the old classmates meet to continue their study. They discuss travelling to the Mediterranean to follow in the footsteps of Virgil's story. Then an unexpected windfall encourages her to organise the trip - six assorted intelligent women - and an exotic tour operator who drives their vehicle - makes seven. The grey of Ladbroke Grove explodes into brilliant colour and they start their great adventure. The atmosphere of symbolism & legend is beautifully maintained - a kind of tranquility produced by supportive companions on a pilgimage together. Then a minor drama from the inquisitive husband, temporarily brings her family nearer - but by this time - she is complete on her own. Candida is a beautiful character - a witty grumpy, complex and intelligent woman. I read every page slowly with pleasure - it's a marvellous book.